Episode 98 Discussion Thread

[Kikaifan]

First Bleach episode I've watched in forever. I saw Yachiru in some screencaps, and Yachiru was my favorite character, so it had to happen.

Yachiru is still awesome. Kenpachi seems slightly less awesome than I remember, but he's still cool. Still can't stand Ichigo, but he wasn't around much so it was a good watch.

[Dark`]

Originally Posted by FlyMoto

I personally liked Ichinose... however i'm glad to see him fall(and it looks like he's dead). Bleach has a hard time killing off ANY characters... the filler is the first to actually do it(and killed off 2: Ichinose and the woman Bounto(whose name i cannot remember)...).

Didn't that Bount that used the cards die when his doll went out of control? I forget his name but it's the guy with the glasses...pretty sure he went the way of the dinosaurs...

[SaraPandora27]

Originally Posted by ThoHell

It also seem to show a little bit of a relationship with Ichigo and Inoue. CAN'T WAIT FOR HOLLOW ARC!!!!

Huh? Which part? Didn't notice any though.
A large part of it shows Inoue and her hairclip burning but relationship between her and Ichigo?

[noir senshi]

This has to be my all tiem favourite episode for the bounto arc, not because of the Zaraki vs Ichinose but because the OP was just pure genius.

You can't lose if you go with Yui for an OP or ED.

[Zu Ra]

Originally Posted by full metal x

I find it funny that Ichinose can seal their movemnets a captain, 2 vice captain, and ichigo and the other. I mean comon what with that Ichinose is not even seated and he somehow punk all of them? The ep starting to lose it excitement they should end the fight quickly.

Well its an anime and in anime/manga logic never prevails . If its a filler, logic always goes drown the drain .

I did make the same point earlier Ichinose/Kariya really make Byakuya/Ichigo/Shiro look bad , really bad . But afterall its a filler if they dont show Anatagonist God-Moding earlier then getting pawned later we would have lost intrest from the word go

There are lot of things in these fillers which are parllel to Bleach Logic . Blame Studio Peirot and Tv Tokyo for that

[Mr. DJ]

this was a pretty good episode, though I'm like why are the fucking up w/ the animation!? x_x Zaraki poorly drawn didn't settle well w/ me

Ichinose is dead...I'm pretty sure of it...judging from sword position...Zaraki sliced him right through...Yachiru seemed to be paying her respect then quickly jumped back on Kenpachi's shoulder.

The final climax of the fight's animation was pretty damn good

Hitsugaya, Ichigo, Renji, Matsumoto....THEY'RE ALL NOOBS, so of course they're like "omgwtfhax!!"

Zaraki gets straight to the point and fucks around as little as possible

[Zu Ra]

Originally Posted by DjTrizz

this was a pretty good episode, though I'm like why are the fucking up w/ the animation!? x_x Zaraki poorly drawn didn't settle well w/ me

Actually the art has been pretty lame for quite some time .

The only High point reached in Art and Design was in Ep . 27 ( Release the Death Blow ) , the Ikkaku Vs Ichi finale.They have nicely incoporated manga stills in that one .

[ScytheBlade]

Originally Posted by i_shinigami

Actually the art has been pretty lame for quite some time .

The only High point reached in Art and Design was in Ep . 27 ( Release the Death Blow ) , the Ikkaku Vs Ichi finale.They have nicely incoporated manga stills in that one .

Actually, all the earlier episodes' drawings are superior to the SS and filler ones.

[NaNash|]

Ahhhh

Finally a decent OP and a decent fight.

nothing much, just these two are decent.

[MarcusG]

Originally Posted by Lumir

Yachiru FTW! Omg for some reason in this ep she just grasped my attention! For some reason i just noticed how small she really is along with her zanpaktou! So kawaii!!!..

Yes Yachiru is the cutest character in Bleach, I think they really brought her out in this episode. Someone needs to make an ava of Yachiru and the fall of Maki chan.
I enjoyed this episode, I really love it when they make battles dramatic by playing slow classical music in the background while two men power up like DBZ characters.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by DjTrizz

Hitsugaya, Ichigo, Renji, Matsumoto....THEY'RE ALL NOOBS, so of course they're like "omgwtfhax!!"

Zaraki gets straight to the point and fucks around as little as possible

word. You have a group of young, inexperianced fighters. Someone even posted a couple eps ago about how Hitsu is genius strong but has no fight experiance, so he gets owned. And we all know Renji's fight record . Sure Ichigo has some experiance, but he's atleast a like 400 years younger (probally more) than Zaraki

[Skyfall]

You are all missing the point. What fight experience ? Since when did it matter at such power gaps? They didnt even try, they simply stood there, while they could have vaporized Ichinose in an instant with all his experience simply because they are that much stronger. How much experience does it take to move your arse and deal a blow with all the power you can gather? I bet not much. We dont see any serious attacks, no flash steps, no nothing, they are simply mopping around. Its like they even dont give a damn. They didnt even go shikai on him.

What happens when Rukia is in danger? Ichigo goes nuts, pulls out all the stops, including his hollow side, blocks the power of 1000 zanpaktous to save her, takes on arguably the strongest captain (old man aside), goes bankai, shows extreme speed and determination etc.

What happens when Hinamori is in danger? Hitsugaya threatens to kill another captain, doesnt hesitate to pull out his sword and go shikai spitting ice and crap - all straight to the point without hesitating, later goes bankai in an instant when Hinamori is sort of killed by Aizen.

What happens when SS is in danger? They simply cant be bothered to even attack with more than 10% of their power, if even that much. Now WTF is this? Looks like neither of them simply gives a damn about SS, at least not enaugh to even put up a fight.

Someone even posted a couple eps ago about how Hitsu is genius strong but has no fight experiance, so he gets owned

And im still waiting for someone to tell me exactly where does Hitsu get owned aside from Aizen who kicked everyones arse.

[S_C_L-1]

I think one of the other factors is that Maki was in the same squad as him... so he knows what kind of person he is and how hes gonna fight.

then theres also the fact that he had a bankai almost identical to Tousens...(im just gonna assume it was bankai)... which Zaraki also beat easily.

the only difference really, was that Zaraki didnt have much fun against maki...


also, im a sucker for the "1 big ass strike" kind of thing... the defeat/victory just feel so much more distant and complete.

[SuperKnuckles]

Man.. I really did not want to see Ichinose die off or anything.

I still want to see some of the GOOD guys fall or something like that in canon. But oh well.

Still, I'm almost shocked at how good the OP and ED were. It's as if they're ready to end the Bount angle already. Even the animation in the episode itself was top notch this time.

[lommm]

Originally Posted by Dark`

Didn't that Bount that used the cards die when his doll went out of control? I forget his name but it's the guy with the glasses...pretty sure he went the way of the dinosaurs...

yep. that bounto died. and the guy with the nice clothes who used the snake, the first bounto that chad fought in this arc... Kariya killed that guy also.

but with both of those bounto deaths, we have to assume. we never actually had anyone say they were dead. we never saw their bodies. if i see one of them decapitated or something, then I will actually believe the death. but until then, i'm always going to be paranoid that they will suddenly come back for the "twist" in this arc.

[astrallionheart]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Given that Ichigo is slightly stronger than Zaraki and Hitsugaya is probably not far behind

I don't know, the only time we had a full measure of Zaraki's strength was during Ichigo's final fight, where the animation was fairly clear he had all the power of Zangetsu *and* aid from his inner hollow. It's a little hard I think to extrapolate from that where Ichigo and Hitsugaya's power levels are compared to Hitsugaya.

Also, with Zaraki mentioning that Ichinose's zanpaktoh is kidoh-based (aka, much of the power is not generated from himself), I think we might make a similar analogy with Hitsugaya. If he is a boy genius that's risen in ranks so quickly (in such a slow as molasses country-atmosphere like Soul Society), it might make sense that Hitsugaya's zanpaktoh is also kidoh-based (the equivalent of a brilliant mage in RPG terms, rather than a power based fighter). So again, there may be overestimations of Hitsugaya's power. Also, the way he's been displayed, has always seemed that he's not overly powerful in the reitsu case.

Example: Ichigo, battered and beaten, without the power boost from Zangetsu and his Inner Hollow (as mentioned by Ukitake on the bridge with Byakuya--someone at least captain-class is coming). At this point, Ichigo could fight Kuchiki on a sword-fighting basis, but was no competition if Byakuya pulled out his bankai (at the same time, Ichigo would not be a match with Kenpachi on a sword-fighting basis, without aid).

Which comes to show, power levels alone are a bit over-rated in Bleach. I think the author (and the filler writers) try to show that an opponent's "challenge rating" and his pure spirit power level is not the same thing. Unfortunately, DBZ type shows have so permeated the anime world that most of the viewers are not used to an RPG-style approach, where an opponent can be harder or easier on a matchup basis (rock paper scissors), and that strength is not the end all be all.

[FlyMoto]

Originally Posted by Dark`

Didn't that Bount that used the cards die when his doll went out of control? I forget his name but it's the guy with the glasses...pretty sure he went the way of the dinosaurs...

good point. however, when i said 'killed off character' i ment more along the lines of a character they'd went into their story a bit for. The snake bount, and the card bount did die, however there was never any back story given to them, or any reason to really like their characters. However, yoshino(i remembered her name this time!) and Ichinose were given some of their history and reasons to like them, and thus made their deaths a bit more dramatic. No one else that has been given so much detail has really died in the past.

[Flashdance]

Originally Posted by astrallionheart

Also, with Zaraki mentioning that Ichinose's zanpaktoh is kidoh-based (aka, much of the power is not generated from himself), I think we might make a similar analogy with Hitsugaya. If he is a boy genius that's risen in ranks so quickly (in such a slow as molasses country-atmosphere like Soul Society), it might make sense that Hitsugaya's zanpaktoh is also kidoh-based (the equivalent of a brilliant mage in RPG terms, rather than a power based fighter). So again, there may be overestimations of Hitsugaya's power. Also, the way he's been displayed, has always seemed that he's not overly powerful in the reitsu case.

Nononono Hitsugaya´s zanpaktou was clearly categorized as an ice-type zanpaktou and not a kidou-based one. However Hitsugaya´s zanpaktou was also called the strongest ice type zanpaktou so he has an advantage considering his zanpaktou that´s true...
Ichinose´s zanpaktou type is pretty useless against Kenpachi, picking up your RPG idea, because Kenpachi can emit Kidou strong enought to make it difficult to move only with his Reiatsu and Ichinose needs his swords power to get the same effect so there is a huge power difference between them.

Originally Posted by astrallionheart

Which comes to show, power levels alone are a bit over-rated in Bleach. I think the author (and the filler writers) try to show that an opponent's "challenge rating" and his pure spirit power level is not the same thing. Unfortunately, DBZ type shows have so permeated the anime world that most of the viewers are not used to an RPG-style approach, where an opponent can be harder or easier on a matchup basis (rock paper scissors), and that strength is not the end all be all.

That DBZ like powering up was kinda lame ´cause Kenpachi could have killed Ichinose off easily, granting Ichinose another strike, while trying to make that one more "dramatic" or "cool", is killing of the athmosphere...

[Mr. DJ]

dammit, DBZ ruined all future animes where characters 'power up'

I'm gonna use City of Hero/Villain terms....Zaraki and Ichonose both hit Build Up, just Zaraki was lv50 and Ichnose was lv40 ;P

That DBZ like powering up was kinda lame ´cause Kenpachi could have killed Ichinose off easily, granting Ichinose another strike, while trying to make that one more "dramatic" or "cool", is killing of the athmosphere.

ya know you can EXACTLY apply this to Ichigo's fight w/ Kenpachi...we all know how Kenpachi is when it comes to fighting w/ a potentially strong person.

You are all missing the point. What fight experience ? Since when did it matter at such power gaps? They didnt even try, they simply stood there, while they could have vaporized Ichinose in an instant with all his experience simply because they are that much stronger. How much experience does it take to move your arse and deal a blow with all the power you can gather? I bet not much. We dont see any serious attacks, no flash steps, no nothing, they are simply mopping around. Its like they even dont give a damn. They didnt even go shikai on him.

you just went into detail about why Hitsu, Ichi, Renji and Matsu are all n00bs

[Tigryn]

Originally Posted by Flashdance

Nononono Hitsugaya´s zanpaktou was clearly categorized as an ice-type zanpaktou and not a kidou-based one.

Is there any reason it can't be both? i.e. an Ice element kidou type?